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Bth Day.] Naturalisation. [13 June, 1911. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I was going to say the very same thing, that if the five years which is suggested as being the period for Canada, that is two years plus these local three years—if the proposal is made that it is to be after five years' residence in our countries, I see no objection to it at all. Sir JOHN SIMON : That is a portion of the second proposition which Mr. Churchill read out, that five years anywhere in the Empire should be as good as five years in the United Kingdom. Sir JOSEPH WARD : That is all right. The CHAIRMAN : It may be three years in Canada and two years in New Zealand, and that would make five years for British naturalisation. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : But the probation should be in the country of naturalisation. It would not be that the applicant should be three years in Canada and two years in Australia. The CHAIRMAN : It would, for Great Britain ; that is the change we propose to make. We should give him Imperial naturalisation so long as he has resided five years in any one part or parts of the British Empire. Sir JOSEPH WARD : There is one point I want to ask a question upon so as to make it quite clear. Supposing in the case of New Zealand, in connection with this second part of the proposal as to the five years, we required a man before we naturalised him to wait for five years, would this proposal mean that on his being naturalised he has to stay another five years before he gets it ? Sir JOHN SIMON : No, they overlap. Sir JOSEPH WARD : It is residence only. The CHAIRMAN : It is concurrent residence. Dr. PINDLAY : We have no prescribed number of years. We ask how long he has been in New Zealand, and we may grant it without any period being prescribed. Will you ask as they do in Canada : " What period does your law provide ? " and if the answer is " Two years," will you then say " You have to wait another three years and then you will have Imperial letters of naturalisation " ? We have no time prescribed, and we would like to know what evidence you would be content with. Mr. FISHER: You could state in your certificate the time he had been there. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I think our better way would be probably to put into one of our Acts a period of years, say, a year or two, and that would get over it. Mr. FISHER: Supposing you naturalised an applicant the next day, Sir Joseph, you could put down the time he had been in your country when you granted him naturalisation ? Sir JOSEPH WARD : Yes, but I think the clearer and more handy way would be to put a period of a year or two into our own Act. The CHAIRMAN : That would be an advantage in the way of similarity.